Andrew Cooper's Page

About Me:

Here is something I submitted to the Buddhist magazine Tricycle the first time I published there, five or six years ago. It's kind of a parody of Buddhist biographies.

Andrew Cooper Biography

Andrew Cooper was introduced to the Buddhist practice of vipassana meditation in the early 1970s, and for several years was an associate at the meditation firm of Goldstein Salzberg Kornfield and Schwartz. Realizing he was not on track to attain nirvana, or “make partner,” he went to Boulder, Colorado, to study under the direction of the Tibetan master Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. Two years later, he left Boulder under a dark cloud, when it was discovered that, having confused the Five Buddha Families of vajrayana Buddhism with the five New York families of organized crime, he had spent countless hours fruitlessly trying to visualize the blue-hued, thousand-armed figure of Carlo Gambino floating above his head.

Mr. Cooper’s next stop was the Zen Center of Los Angeles, where for seven years he practiced under the tutelage of Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. During his time as a staff member at ZCLA, Mr. Cooper directed the center’s publishing program and founded and edited the seminal journal The Ten Directions. Eventually he was fired.

Mr. Cooper was among the original instigators of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. In the mid-1980s, he organized Thich Nhat Hanh’s first two teaching tours of the U.S., and served as his personal assistant. During Mr. Cooper’s tenure as head of the board of directors, he helped steer BPF into a prolonged period of acute organizational crisis. Then he retired.

In an effort to minimize the damage done to the Buddhadharma, all sentient beings, and himself, Mr. Cooper took up the life of a civilian. Today he lives in Oakland, California, with his wife, Liz, and their daughter, Alana, where he works as an editor and writer.
(Update: For the past several years I've been editor-at-large for Tricycle, and we now live in Olympia, Washington. Also, because I never studied with a teacher or in a community, this biography doesn't mention my long interest in Pure Land Buddhism, especially the teachings of Shinran.)

Amida Membership

Not a member

Faith Background & Affiliation

Jewish background

What is your interest in Amida Trust

It's time I connected with a community of others interested in the teachings of Pure Land Buddhism.

How did you find this web site?

Through the Tricycle blog.

What country are you living in?

United States

What is the nearest town to where you live? If in UK, please give first half of your postcode. Thank you.

Olympia, Washington

Are you a member of an Amida group/Congregation

not at the moment

Have you visited

None of these

What other interests do you have, eg Arts, Gardening and so on.

literature, politics, film, sports, history--a bunch of stuff.